I am wanting to upgrade my dinosaur phone for a PDA or Smartphone. I currently have Sprint and have an old Vision shared plan. I love the new Instinct, but would have to move all my 3 phones on the shared plan (2 of which are older phones) to a higher priced plan, which I refuse to do (not worth the extra $40 per month). So I now am back to looking at PDA's or Smartphones, where I can just add a $15-$23 add on pack to my existing plan.

I have been looking at the Sprint Blackberry Curve 8330. I ran across MobileTechReview website and started researching. Sounds like a great phone although the battery life and sound quality while talking were not the best. I have read where the BB Bold is forthcoming which resolves a lot of these issues, but Sprint probably won't have it for awhile. I talked with the Sprint rep today and he said he didn't like the Windows Mobile 6 on most of the smartphones, but loved it on the Sprint HTC Touch phone. He showed it to me and I loved the soft feel of it along with the nice size that fit perfectly in my hand (didn't feel like it was going to slip out of my hands onto the floor!...and the price didn't hurt...$99 after rebate vs the $149 after rebate for the Curve). He mentioned HTC is coming out with the Diamond model for the US in September and it will have the upgraded Windows Mobile 6.1 and some other better features. I went to review the Sprint HTC Touch, the HTC Touch and the HTC Diamond on MTR and am more confused than ever.

I want decent battery life, easy navigation, good sound quality, faster response, great web browsing, easy email access, able to take photos and upload them via the internet to my computer or to another email address and if it's a touch screen, easy UI. I don't need anything as fancy as an iphone or Instinct, but I'm confused between the various HTC touch screen phones and which one is best. I've read where the Diamond will be fast, more intuitive than the original HTC Touch, but is a bit pricey. I am still not out of the woods on considering a BB Curve 8330 as I've heard BB is very reliable and sturdy phone.

If anyone has used the Sprint HTC Touch, the HTC Diamond, the Blackberry Curve 8330 or the Blackberry Bold and could lean me toward one, that would be helpful. To throw a kink in the mix, I've read on BoyGenuisReports website that BB is coming out with a touchscreen phone called Thunder. I've read where it'll be exclusive to Verizon, so it probably won't be coming to Sprint carrier anytime soon and will probably be way out of my price range anyway.

Thanks for your input! I would also like to give kudos to the MobileTechReview website staff for their absolutely incredible reviews on phones! They are easy to read, understandable and include lots of pictures and even video so you have a better feel for the product. Thank you for all that you guys do!

Oh and I forgot to mention in my mini-novel that I would like to have GPS, voice dialing capability (without having to use voice tags), be able to play wmv clips, listen to music, view photos, wifi would be nice, but not necessary and am not going to be using texting (although I would like that feature to be available should I decide to add on a texting plan). Are both the Sprint HTC Touch and the HTC Diamond both 3G?

Both the Sprint Touch and the Diamond have EVDO, which is Sprint's (or rather CDMA networks) version of 3G.

I personally love the Touch. The BB is a great choice if you text a lot, but you say that you don't. I have the GSM Diamond and haven't seen the Sprint version yet, which should be out in a few weeks. So I can't tell you much about their particular flavor of the Diamond. But it will run the same software as the GSM version. That software is very pretty looking and has a lot of wow-factor, though it may not actually add that much usability over the original TouchFLO found on the Touch. For the Diamond, I'd say you really have to use one and see how the user experience suits you-- you may love it, or you may not. The Diamond, since it has a lot of features and is new, will likely cost more than the Curve or Touch.

Thank, Lisa. You mentioned you have the GSM version of the Diamond. Is that running the same WinMo 6 as the Sprint Touch does or is it the newer version 6.1? Is there that much of a difference between the two WinMo versions? I guess now I am leaning more toward the HTC Touch, but now want to know what the differences are between the Sprint HTC Touch version (or the newer improved TouchFlo) and the Diamond. Os is there much of a difference between the two? Just a little more wow or better finger gesturing control with a newer improved TouchFlo? I did play with the Sprint version of the Touch and it felt pretty good although I have never used a touchscreen so it was all foreign to me. I am still using an old Sanyo 4900 for pete's sake! LOL

Okay, now that you have actually "touched" and used the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond (great review by the way), which do you prefer.....the BB Curve 8330 or the HTC Touch Diamond? I have also seen where BB is supposedly going to launch the Storm in October or November, which will be a touch screen, to add to the mix, although it will be with Verizon for probably a few years. You also mentioned today that Sprint is also coming out with the HTC Touch Pro, which will have the touch screen AND a slide out QWERTY keyboard. Have you had an opportunity to get one to play with it yet? Here are some questions about the Diamond that you didn't share in your review.

1) What about the onscreen keyboard. What do you think of it? I want to be able to type easily for responding to emails although right now I don't do a lot of texting. 2) Does the Blackberry Curve 8330 (Sprint version) have more storage? You mentioned the Diamond only has 4gb onboard with no expansion slots available.3) If you had your druthers, would you prefer the HTC Touch Pro or the Diamond?4) What are the chances of having problems with a touchscreen type device vs push button type device? How reliable have HTC Touch devices been in the past historically vs BB (which I've heard are very reliable)5) Which device has the more exciting screen visually? I've heard some of the BB screens are like black and white and boring whereas the HTC Touch Diamond appears to be more "colorful" and eye-pleasing.6) Is the Touch Flo 3D on the Sprint HTC Diamond much improved over the Touch Flo of the Sprint HTC Touch?

Okay, I think I've asked enough questions. Please respond when you get a moment and can put the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond down long enough! :-D

Lisa, once again I forgot to mention that I need a great phone to be able to surf the net easily. Sounds like no matter which phone I pick from Sprint, they run the EV-DO Rev A and it's fairly fast, compared to the Power Vision phone I have now. You mentioned in your review that the new Sprint HTC Touch Diamond does not have the pinch or 2 finger gesturing available, is that correct? Is that feature a drawback or has it improved to where you don't have to use the pinch or 2 finger gesture to get results? Thanks.

Power Vision is EVDO Rev.0, which is a little slower than Rev. A but it's not a huge difference like the original Vision (1xRTT) and EVDO.

The pinch and stretch thing is from the iPhone and some folks like that and are interested to know if another phone ever supports it. It's not really a biggie and the Diamond has it's own methods for zoom that work fine.

It's really very hard to decide for someone else whether they should choose a BlackBerry or Diamond. They're as different from each other as you can get. Some folks love touch screens and others can't live without a good hardware keyboard. Personally, I'd go with one of each, but most folks don't need or use as many phones as I do.

BlackBerry is certainly less sexy and the screens aren't as interesting or fun to interact with/look at. But BB is generally rock solid and stable. HTC does a good job, but WinMo overall isn't as reliable as BB. Not that they're disasters, but you do need to reboot every once in a while. The Diamond, being cutting edge, will have its growing pains.